Saturday, December 26, 2015

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, organised by the Cruising Yacht Club
of Australia, is the ultimate test for skippers, tacticians and crews.

The 2015 race will be the 71st edition of this time-honoured event and
see 110 yachts from 28 nations race more than 600 Nautical Miles in
quest of the Tattersall’s Cup and to win the coveted Rolex timepiece.

All eyes will once again be on defending Sydney to Hobart line honours champion Wild Oats XI and American challenger Comanche when the annual Boxing Day race begins on Saturday.
This year's blue water classic is shaping up as a replay of last year's epic finish, when Australia's yachting sweetheart pipped her 100-foot rival by just 55 minutes to claim an unprecedented eighth title.

Fellow supermaxis Ragamuffin 100 and the celebrity-laden Perpetual Loyal will also contend for the coveted crown, as will another US raider in Rambler 88.

The Wild Oats XI preparation includes some serious testing of a radical,
retractable hydrofoil-type wing that will extend 2.75 metres out from
the hull on the leeward side to improve the yacht's downwind
performance. "It assists us more in surfing downwind, off the breeze, sailing mode"

But the focus will undoubtedly be on the two powerhouses at the starter's line on Boxing Day, just as it was last year when Comanche left Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards eating dust with a spectacular start.
Richards and his crew recovered to arrive first in Hobart, however owner Bob Oatley has since gone to great lengths to stay ahead of his American counterpart and the chasing pack.
A radical $2 million nose job has been the talk of the sailing community since Wild Oats XI went under the knife mid-year, although Richards said he held no fears she had lost any of her speed.

Two weeks ago she blew her opponents — minus Comanche — out of the water in the SOLAS Big Boat challenge and showed off some serious speed.
"There's absolutely no issues there at all. These guys have been building boats and been in the boating job for a long time. So we've got a lot of confidence there," Richards said.

The Wild Oats team have enjoyed a relaxed Christmas Day in comparison to last year, when they were forced into repairing a broken boom in the lead-up.
"Last year we had a few issues with a few bits and pieces which weren't prepared until Christmas Day," Richards said.
"So we were out there checking a few things on Christmas Day. It's a bit more relaxed this year.
"Whether it's a good sign or a bad sign, I'm not quite sure. But we'll see what happens."

In the handicap battle, Hobart debutant Chinese Whisper is the leading contender to take the crown off defending champion Wild Rose, who will also get stiff competition from Rambler 88 and Ichi Ban.

A is for armada: 109 yachts will race south in the 71st Sydney to Hobart. The first race in 1945 had just nine little yachts.

B is for bowmen/women: They’re in the firing line at the front of the boats. The wettest job in the game and one of its most dangerous because it involves working on a wildly bucking and very slippery platform

C is for clipper: Round the world yachts are using the Sydney to Hobart as a leg of their world odyssesy. A fleet of 12 of these yacht, many sailed by novices, are racing south. Aussie Wendy Tuck is one of the skippers.

D is for the Derwent Ririver. It’s where the race finishes between two and six days after it starts on December 26. The fickle winds on the river, which can shut down completely overnight, can turn the race upside down — and have done so on more than one occasion.

E is for emergency tiller: A small tiller that fits into the top of the rudder post which can be used to steer the boat if main wheel steering equipment fails. Crucial if boat is damaged.

F is for freeze dried food: Activated by water and used by some crews for convenience and to save on weight. Not a favourite of sailors but does the job.

G is for gunwale. The rail that sticks up at the edge of the deck; as in walking on deck feels more secure if there is a gunwale.

H is for hot bunking: Where one crew gets up to go on watch and his/her warm bunk spot is taken by another. Usually people are so exhausted they really don’t mind.

I is for internationals and invaders. The US supermaxi Comanche is in Australia with designs on winning the line honors race. So to is the 88-footer Rambler. In all a record 27 international yachts are competing.

J is for jury. A group of appointed officials who enforce the rules of international racing during the Sydney to Hobart. They are needed most years to sort disputes and arbitrate on crashes and rule infringements.

K is for kite. Another name for a spinnaker which is used when a yacht races downwind and is the biggest sail on the boat. Provides the yacht with extra grunt.

L is for line honors winner. The boat which makes it to Hobart in the shortest time. Wild Oats has done this a record eight times — and won the race twice overall. She also owns the race record and is the defending champion.

M is for minnows. The polar opposites of the supermaxis as they are the smallest. The smallest yacht allowed in the Sydney to Hobart is 30 foot but this year the minnow is actually 34 foot.

N is for nautical mile. One minute of latitude or about 1.15 statute miles. this is how distance is measured in sailing.

O is for overall winner. This is decided under a handicapping rule which involves a complicated calculation of such things as size, age, form and results. This allows older yachts to go head to head with newer, fast and bigger boats. Wild Rose is the defending champion.

P is for personal flotation device. A devise which crews must wear. It’s also for Perpetual Loyal, the 100-foot supermaxi being raced to Hobart for charity. Onboard is a celebrity crew which includes former Australian cricketer Michael Clake, Wallaby Kurtley Beale and former Rooster Anthony Minichiello.

Q is for queue. It can be as hectic on the water as it is on the land on Boxing Day, so be patient and mind the queues.

R is for Ragamuffin. The 100 footer is owned by Syd Fischer, at 88 the oldest skipper and sailor in the race. A five-time America’s Cup campaigner he is also a past overall winner of the race.

S is for sunfish. Every sailor’s nightmare. A yacht hits one of these maritime wonders which lurk just below the surface at speed and enormous damage can be caused.

T is for Tony Cable. They say when a sailor does his 25th Sydney to Hobart he goes on the “idiots board”. Sydney sailor Tony Cable is about to embark on a record 50th.

U is for under bare poles. Not a situation you want to be in. When all sail area is taken down due to wild winds and sea conditions. This helps slow the boat down by taking the load off the yacht. A last resort

V is for VHF radio. Every boat must take one as part of extremely strict safely rules tightened in the wake of the deadly 1998 race sounds.

W is for women. This is the 70th anniversary of female participation with two women competing in the second race to Hobart in 1946. There are also a record seven female skippers.

X is for X-ray. This is used on boats to ensure it is ship worthy and safe to sail.

Y is for yacht. Some of the most hi-tech, cutting edge boats in the world contest the race. But little cruisers and slow wooden yachts are all in the wet more for the camaraderie than desire to smash he opposition.

Z is for zephyr. A whisper of breeze. Not good in a race like the Hobart where you want to get south as fast as possible.

Detail an East Indies map (1660) by Pieter Goos showing Christmas Island This small section of the map shows the location of Mony, now called Christmas Island.It is the first time Christmas Island appears on a map.

So named because of its discovery on Christmas Day in 1643, Christmas Island became a territory of Australia in 1958 after spending a number of years under British sovereignty.

The island is primarily rainforest, and 63% of the Island has been designated a national park.

But actually, it turns out that there are actually two Christmas Islands!

Wjo knew the other one ?Kiritimati aka Christmas Island (Part of the Line Islands, a district of Kiribati)

Kiribati is a country comprised of 33 coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean, including three island groups: the Gilbert Islands, the Line Islands, and the Phoenix Islands.

The Line Islands, where Kiritimati is located, can be found in the central Pacific Ocean, south of Hawaii.

Kiritimati (where the ‘ti’ combinations are pronounced as ‘s’) is the world’s largest coral atoll.

The island was discovered on Christmas Eve in 1777 by explorer James Cook, thus the reason for the island’s festive name.
A fun fact about the country of Kiribati: it is the only country in the world to fall into all four hemispheres (northern, southern, eastern, and western).

Kiritimati (formerly spelt Christmas)for the island forming part of Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean

Thursday, December 24, 2015

The Ocean Discovery App is a unique educational experience that would make the deepest ocean accessible to everyone with access to a HoloLens kit.

The Ocean

The ocean is the lifeblood of our planet, yet most people have a limited understanding of its importance to us.
Despite covering nearly three-quarters of Earth’s surface, 95% of the ocean is unexplored.
We know of around 230,000 marine species, but it’s estimated that there are over 2 million down there, waiting to be discovered!
The ocean is what makes Earth so unique within our solar system, yet we know more about the surfaces of the Moon and Mars than we do about our ocean and the marine life therein.

The Experience

In a classroom setting or at home, for example, the HoloLens Ocean Discovery app would create a three-dimensional holographic cut-away model of an area of ocean, stretching from surface to seafloor.
By zooming in and out of this hologram, people could visualize the ocean in unprecedented detail.
Learners could adjust different aspects of the model—for example, zoom into different ocean depth zones—and interact with rarely seen marine life right before their eyes.
A series of responsive visual sequences could show the viewer how the geology and biology of the ocean interact with the ebb and flow of tides and currents.

Additional, fun and immersive experiences could include a wall transforming into a virtual theater, with holograms of marine creatures emerging from it and swimming towards the viewer.
Users of the app could become divers, combing sunken shipwrecks for hidden treasure, or could experience exploring the intricacy of a coral reef ecosystem.
These types of interactions could be invaluable to aquariums and marine centres.

Immersive experiences within the app would cover topics such as ancient marine life, undersea exploration, marine biology, geology, seismic monitoring for tsunami risk, the tracking of weather patterns and hurricanes, the impact of climate change and acidification on coral reefs, marine archaeology, fisheries, renewable energies and much more.
New topics could be added into the app over time and in response to demand.

Potential Partners

In an effort to communicate the impact of emerging technologies, the Ocean Discovery HoloLens app could feature subsea ocean exploration, marine renewable energy innovations and high-resolution seabed mapping that will be developed over the next decade.

Alongside the home and educational version of the app, a professional version could be developed for use within international organizations that work at sea, or have commercial interests in the ocean. Various training programmes could help prepare qualified specialists in a variety of fields (academic, industrial, scientific and military) to successfully decrease environmental damage to the ocean whilst maximizing its positive impacts.

A preliminary Ocean Induction course could cover a basic introduction to geology and biodiversity, with input from satellite observation data and include the importance of the ocean in Earth’s natural cycles, such as the role it plays in regulating the atmosphere and weather patterns.

Why Now?

Although there is some movement to recognise the importance of the ocean, more needs to be done.
As a source of global economic growth; commerce, food, medicine, energy, and as a carbon sink and regulator of climate change, we must share and increase our knowledge.
The Ocean Discovery HoloLens app could tie in with any number of marine organizations and forthcoming initiative on ocean governance.

More attention will be given to the ocean following the historic Paris agreement, the final document of which noted:
“the importance of ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems, including oceans, and the protection of biodiversity…”

If you appreciate the Ocean and the biodiversity it supports, please vote for this idea now by clicking the star icon !

When the freighter El Faro was lost in a hurricane on October 1, one of the goals of the salvage operation was to recover its voyage data recorder (VDR)—the maritime equivalent of the "black box" carried aboard airliners.
The VDR, required aboard all large commercial ships (and any passenger ships over 150 gross tons), collects a wealth of data about the ship's systems as well as audio from the bridge of the ship, radio communications, radar, and navigation data.
Writing its data to storage within a protective capsule with an acoustic beacon, the VDR is an essential part of investigating any incident at sea, acting as an automated version of a ship's logbook.

Sometimes, that data can be awfully inconvenient.
While the data in the VDR is the property of the ship owner, it can be taken by an investigator in the event of an accident or other incident—and that may not always be in the ship owner's (or crew's) interest.
The VDRs aboard the cruise ship Costa Concordia were used as evidence in the manslaughter trial of the ship's captain and other crewmembers.
Likewise, that data could be valuable to others—especially if it can be tapped into live.

The US Coast Guard is developing policies to help defend against "transportation security incidents" caused by cyber-attacks against shipping, including issuing guidance to vessel operators on how to secure their systems and reviewing the design of required marine systems—including VDRs.
That's promising to be a tall order, especially taking the breadth of systems installed on the over 80,000 cargo and passenger vessels in the world.
And given the types of criminal activity recently highlighted by the New York Times' "Outlaw Ocean" reports, there's plenty of reason for some ship operators to not want VDRs to be secure—including covering up environmental issues, incidents at sea with other vessels, and sometimes even murder.

IOActive researchers looked specifically at the Furuno VR-3000, a VDR that was involved in a case in 2012 where data for a period during which Italian marines aboard a freighter fired upon an Indian fishing vessel "mysteriously" corrupted before investigators could access it.
The marines, who were embarked aboard the freighter Enrica Lexie, claimed that they were in international waters and believed the fishermen to be pirates.
The data that could have proven their location, along with communications data, was lost.

The VR-3000's Data Recording Unit is essentially a Linux-based personal computer with little in the way of security hardening.
Other manufacturers use various industrial, real-time operating systems.
But at least it's more secure than some of the other VDRs sold by Furuno.
In another incident with a different, Windows XP-based VDR in 2012, data was corrupted when a crewmember on a Singapore-flagged ship inserted a USB drive into a port on the VDR—causing it to be infected with malware and for voice and navigation data to be overwritten.
(No, that wasn't a typo: it was a Windows XP-based black box.)

Windows XP is embedded in a variety of hardware at sea.Furuno's XP-based VX2 system is used in GPS systems, auto-pilots, satellite weather terminals, and Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders used to provide vessel tracking data.
And many of these systems use standard Ethernet local area networks to connect to navigational systems—as well as to PCs that provide access to the stored data.

The network of devices connected to a voyage data recorder system.

(Furuno)

IOActive did a deep analysis on the VR-3000 and found a number of vulnerabilities, including:Weak encryption of voice data files using an embedded, shared password.Vulnerabilities in software services that allowed remote attackers to execute code on the data recording unit with root privileges, including the ability to "delete certain conversations from the bridge, delete radar images, or alter speed or position readings."The VDR could also be turned into a remote bug to spy on the crew of a ship through its attached microphones.

To execute remote attacks on the VDR, the attacker only needed access to the network.
Since many VDR systems use Ethernet and sit on the same network as satellite communications systems (some of which are known to be vulnerable to attacks), there are a number of potential ways attackers could breach the security of the VDR while not being aboard.
Terrorists, pirates, hostile state actors and others could pinpoint the location of ships of interest and then listen to the conversations of crewmembers as well as their radio calls.

IOActive revealed these vulnerabilities to the Department of Homeland Security's Industrial Control Systems Computer Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) and Japan's CERT Coordination Center (JPCERT/CC) over a year ago.
Furuno was notified as well, but it promised only to patch the problem "sometime in 2015," according to the IOActive report.
There's no word on whether the patches have been distributed to ship operators.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Archaeology has long been exploited as a political tool.
Hitler used artifacts and symbols to manufacture a narrative of Aryan racial superiority.
The Islamic State proves its zealotry by destroying evidence of ancient history.
Underwater archaeology — the world of shipwrecks and sunken cities — has mostly avoided these kinds of machinations, though.
Since no one lives beneath the sea, leaders haven’t found many opportunities for political gains from archaeological sites there.

That is, until now.

In the past few years, politicians in Canada, Russia and China have realized that they can use shipwrecks on the sea floor to project their sovereignty into new maritime territories.
And this politicized abuse of science is putting the world on a path toward conflict.

For decades, global powers have been engaged in a race to exploit lucrative marine resources, from oil to fisheries to control of strategic waterways.
But they have faced a challenge: How can a country claim new territory despite the restrictions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea?
It turns out that “historical ties” to resource-rich regions can conveniently help to contravene international law.

Last year, Canada announced the discovery of H.M.S. Erebus, Sir John Franklin’s flagship, which disappeared during a Northwest Passage expedition in 1845.
Stephen Harper, then the prime minister, personally announced the discovery.
His government and its allies provided significant funding for the research.
But Mr. Harper isn’t just a history buff; his interests are practical.

Global warming has made the Northwest Passage more accessible to shipping, which could be an economic windfall for Canada if the government is able to demonstrate sovereignty and charge other countries a transit fee.
“Franklin’s ships are an important part of Canadian history given that his expeditions, which took place nearly 200 years ago, laid the foundations of Canada’s Arctic sovereignty,” Mr. Harper said.

China has been similarly aggressive.
While the South China Sea has historically been shared between China and its neighbors, in the past year Beijing has begun building artificial islands to claim the sea as its own territorial waters. Archaeology laid the groundwork for this belligerence: Starting in 2007 China began archaeological excavations and opened several shipwreck museums, each costing tens of millions of dollars.
In 2014, China’s government launched a $60 million archaeological research vessel to find shipwrecks in the South China Sea.

Archaeologists rewarded the investment by locating more than 120 shipwrecks inside the contested areas.
China’s deputy minister of culture, Li Xiaojie, put it bluntly: “Marine archaeology is an exercise that demonstrates national sovereignty.”

Russia has followed suit.
In 2011, when he was prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin made headlines by retrieving two ancient ceramic jars from a shipwreck at Phanagoria, the ancient Greek city that is 10 miles from Crimea. The media cast it as a publicity stunt, but alarm bells sounded within the archaeological community. Mr. Putin’s political allies had invested $3.5 billion in research at Phanagoria, a submerged harbor with Roman-era shipwrecks.
And while Phanagoria was the site of Greek colonies, Russian nationalists have adopted its ancient kings as proto-Russians.

When Mr. Putin made his speech announcing that Russia had annexed Crimea in March 2014, he justified the move in part based on historical ties to the peninsula.
“This is the location of ancient Khersones, where Prince Vladimir was baptized,” he said.
The annexation added tens of thousands of square miles to Russia’s Black Sea maritime zone.
And this summer a Russian expedition began a major underwater archaeology survey off Crimea’s Sevastopol, a region rich in oil and gas.

For politicians, natural resources are the ends and shipwrecks are the means.
But archaeology rarely fits simple narratives.
In fact, archaeology often demonstrates our shared human past.
Until 10,000 years ago, the disputed regions in the South China Sea were dry land.
Taiwanese archaeologists have located submerged Stone Age remains there that point to a common ancestry of all the region’s inhabitants.
Native peoples traversed the Northwest Passage for thousands of years before Sir John Franklin arrived.
In his annexation speech, Mr. Putin cited Vladimir the Great, the 10th-century Viking conqueror and adopted progenitor of Russian identity, but the president neglected to mention that Vladimir the Great ruled from Kiev, in modern-day Ukraine.

The Map of South and East Ocean Sea Routes was drawn in between
1712-1721 by Qing (Ching) Dynasty Fujian (Fuchien) Province Navy
Commander Shi Shibiao, the son of a famous Qing Dynasty imperial
officer.

This map clearly shows the sea routes, time, and descriptions
from Chinese coastal ports to Japan, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei,
Cambodia and the Philippines.

On this map, the locations and names of
the Southern Sea Islands (Nanhai Zhudao) are very accurate. The map
shows Chinese sovereignty over the South China Sea islands
(including Nansha Islands, Xisha Islands, Zhongsha Islands and Dongsha
Islands).

Archaeologists accept government funding because the world’s cultural resources are disappearing as a result of looting and treasure hunting.
But archaeology in the service of nationalism results in bad science.
What happens when China discovers ancient Vietnamese ships in the South China Sea?

And in Canada we already have a troubling example:
Against accepted preservation practices, Canada gave permission for the removal of the wreck of the explorer Roald Amundsen’s ship Maud to Norway, quietly eliminating a politically messy reminder that a Norwegian was the first Westerner to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage.

The underwater discoveries in Phanagoria, the South China Sea and the Northwest Passage are important scientific discoveries.
The problem is not with the archaeologists conducting quality research, but with the politicians spinning evidence to suit their desires.
The reality is that these are overt land grabs using manufactured historical claims.
Citizens around the world would be wise to tell politicians to stop abusing the past for present-day ambitions.

China releases new rules on map services :getting caught with the “wrong” maps can result in a hefty fine of up to $31,000—or criminal charges.

When it comes to maps, China isn’t messing around.
Starting next year, you don’t want to be caught with the “wrong” maps—that is, maps containing content “that endangers the country's sovereignty, safety and interests,” according to a statement by China’s government mapping official Le Weibin.
In an effort to “boost” the mapmaking industry—and clamp down on maps
that run counter to the government’s stance on issues like Taiwan’s
independence and the territorial dispute over the South China Sea—China
announced new regulations earlier this year on the creation,
distribution, and publication of both print and online maps.

The
government will be monitoring maps for violations like “errors in
compilation” and “leaks of secret geographic information and personal information,” according to China’s official state media, Xinhua.
Also included in this new set of regulations, which will replace
mapping laws drawn up in 1995, is a section dedicated to regulating the
fairly young industry of online mapping.
It requires all online mapping data to be hosted by servers inside the country, and all GPS providers to obtain a cartography certificate.
Details remain fairly vague for now, but CCTV News reports
that violators can face up to 200,000 yuan, or about $31,000, in fines.
Businesses can also have their licenses suspended or revoked.
If the
violation is deemed serious enough, they can even find themselves booked
on criminal charges.

But the tough stance on maps isn’t new.
The Los AngelesTimes reported
in October that customs officials at airports often go through
travelers’ belongings looking for anything pushing back on China’s
official political stances.
Scholars, expatriates, and reporters alike
have had to abandon maps, globes, and books that rendered Taiwan in a different color than the one used for China or that failed to indicate disputed islands in the East China Sea* as the Diaoyu Islands.

That’s because to China, maps are more than just a navigational
tool, especially as tensions rise between the country and its neighbors
over those islands.
In a statement
released earlier this week, the state council declared maps
politically, scientifically, and legally important, “as they draw the
territory of a country, directly reflecting its national sovereignty and
political views.”

To help with
monitoring, online maps are required to set up their server inside of
the country

and must acquire an official certificate.

In July, Google Maps came under fire
from the Chinese government for removing the Chinese name for the
Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground in the South China Sea that
both China and Philippines lay claim to.
The move from Google came after
persistent petitioning from Filipino fishermen, who said the Chinese
name effectively gave credibility to China’s claims.

China has also used historical maps reinforce its claim to the Scarborough Shoal.
Those maps include the so-called “nine-dashed line,”
which was first drawn in 1947 by the Nationalist government.
And while
the history of how this line came to exist is murky—even to Chinese
officials—China declared it as sufficient evidence of the country’s
ownership of the islands, according to Reuters.
“The dotted line of the South China Sea indicates the sovereignty of
China over the islands in the South China Sea since ancient times and
demonstrates the long-standing claims and jurisdiction practice over the
waters of the South China Sea,” Chinese officials wrote in a statement to the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, an expert on Chinese history noted that maps were a sign of legitimacy:

"Regimes that are anxious about their legitimacy fetishize the signs
of legitimacy," said Tim Brook, a professor of Chinese history at the
University of British Columbia and author of "Mr. Selden's Map of
China," a book about an East Asia map from the 1600s. "So one of the
signs of legitimacy is a map—there you are one color, your borders are
all drawn properly and you look like a proper state."